911 emergency calls in Mexico

[navegator]

Yes Mexico has 911 emergency accesses in Mexico City and 15 other cities and today maybe more, I do not have that current information, how to know if your locality has this service? Police cars, ambulances and fire trucks will display this number in red.

Be aware that when calling this number in Mexico, the operator will answer with nine-eleven rather than with nine-one-one and the words cual es (SU or LA)emergencia, and they do have English speaking personnel 24/7.

For those of you that are Spanish challenged I will try to guide you through the simple words to communicate with the operator.

Operator...Nueve once cual es su emergencia?
(Operator...nine eleven what is your emergency?)

You... Necesito un(a)operadora en ingles, por favor.
(You... I need an English operator, please.)

you can also speak to them in Spanish if you can convey the pertinent information that is needed.

Give the following information
Name
Phone number
Street name and nearest cross street, house number or locale if available
!warning! in many places in Mexico street names and numbers are sometimes not readily available or hard to find, so you have to use land marks such as parks, churches, stores, monuments or big avenues, round bout's or well known landmarks as in restaurants or hotels or request a local to give the information for you, Mexicans will always help a turista.

For those of you that may need to call the United States Embassy or the Canadian Embassy the numbers are:

US Embassy in Mexico City is... 55-5080-2000

Canadian Embassy is... 55-5724-7900
or toll free... 800-706-2900

Some big cities and major ports also have consulates, in cities you can find the consulate by asking for it and the directions how to get there and of course by the flag on the flag pole, in some ports the consul is a local person and the phone and address will be known to the port captain.

navegator

[moisheh]

Good advice Navegator. Maybe travelers should also check to see if their cell phone will reach Mexico 911. There are also 3 digit numbers that can reach police or the toll road emergency service. They can reach ambulance service. Often they have English speakers. If you are in distress just stop a Mexican vehicle. They will assist.

[navegator]

It is not a question of whether Mexicans speak English or not, this is about trying to let some of the turistas know that there is at least a phone number that they are familiar with and maybe get some help in an emergency, rather than having to look up phone numbers on the internet or on Google maps!

Giving them a heads up on the phraseology so that they do not get confused with the pronunciation and try to get some help.

navegator

[qtla9111]

moisheh wrote:
Chris. I certainly do not expect English anywhere. But when Sonora started the 911 service they were advertising that they had English speaking operators. I bet if you surveyed any rv park in Mexico less than 10% would understand Spanish. Even less if you surveyed tourists in a hotel. I only mentioned no Spanish so people would not think they could get help in an emergency. Usually there are English speaking Mexicans wherever you travel in Mexico.

Not disagreeing with you, just stating an almost sure fact.

[moisheh]

Chris. I certainly do not expect English anywhere. But when Sonora started the 911 service they were advertising that they had English speaking operators. I bet if you surveyed any rv park in Mexico less than 10% would understand Spanish. Even less if you surveyed tourists in a hotel. I only mentioned no Spanish so people would not think they could get help in an emergency. Usually there are English speaking Mexicans wherever you travel in Mexico.

[qtla9111]

I wouldn't expect anyone to speak English.

[moisheh]

I tried the 911 in Sonora. Would not work from a landlines. I called from my cell and at that time no one was available that spoke English. I do not know if 911 would work from a foreign cell.

[navegator]

I live in Ciudad Satelite that is a suburb of Mexico City and the 911 is answered in Toluca the government seat for the State of Mexico on the other side of the mountain hour and a half drive away, best thing is to have your local phones available in an emergency, all of the police officers of Ciudad Satelite know me, I gave them all tours of the RV, this info is mainly for the new visitors that are not familiar with how things work here, and if need be have some help available to them, I hope it never comes to that.

nine months with out leaving the house and no I am not going nuts, I am driving everyone else nuts including the cat! so there,
no, no es cierto!
I am behaving!

pasen un buen dia

navegator

[Talleyho69]

We have 911 service here in Zihuatanejo, however it is answered in Chilpancingo, our state capital which is 350 kilometers away. Unfortunately the cases that I have heard about have been less than satisfactory because they don't seem to have a map of this area or any knowledge about it.

We programed the policia and bomberos phone numbers into the phone so we can call them directly.

[Lwiddis]

Good to know.